ByAsa Fitch in Dubai,Karen Leigh in Beirut and Ahmed Al Omran in Riyadh

Jan. 3, 2016 5:40 a.m. ET

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday that Saudi Arabia would face divine retribution for its execution of prominent Shiite cleric Nemer al-Nemer, a move that has fanned sectarian tensions in a region already brimming with conflict.

Mr. al-Nemer’s execution Saturday triggered widespread condemnation from officials in predominantly Shiite Muslim Iran, while crowds stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, throwing Molotov cocktails at the building. Police were called in to restore calm and 40 people were arrested, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi said Sunday, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Mr. al-Nemer was one of a group of 47 prisoners, mostly Sunni militants, to die in the kingdom’s largest mass executions in decades.

Mr. Khamenei said the execution was a “political mistake” that wouldn’t go unpunished, according to IRNA. “Undoubtedly, the divine hand of revenge will come back on the tyrants who took his life,” he said.

Having previously warned that carrying out a death sentence against Mr. al-Nemer “would cost Saudi Arabia dearly,” the Iranian government also summoned the Saudi charge d’affaires in Tehran to protest the execution.

Saudi Arabia accused Iran of trying to escalate tensions and support terrorism.

“The Iranian regime has unveiled its real face in support of terrorism which is considered a continuation of its policy aiming to destabilize the security of the region’s countries,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

Mr. al-Nemer was a leading voice behind Shiite protests that rocked Saudi Arabia beginning in 2011. He was sentenced to death in October 2014 on charges of encouraging foreign meddling and disobedience toward Saudi Arabia’s rulers.

While Saudi Arabia is majority Sunni, it has a large and restive Shiite population concentrated in its Eastern Province.

The killing of Mr. al-Nemer could further strain relations between Saudi Arabia and Shiite populations in Iran, Iraq and Lebanon.

Anti-Saudi protests also broke out in the streets of Baghdad on Saturday. Smaller protests took place in the town of Kut, south of the capital, and in the Shiite pilgrimage city of Kerbala.

Mr. al-Nemer’s execution comes at a fragile moment for Iraqi Prime MInister Haider al-Abadi, who faces anger from Shiite leaders who have criticized his reliance on the U.S., which has close ties to Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-led Gulf Arab monarchies.

Mr. Abadi’s government has been cultivating a warmer relationship with Saudi Arabia. The kingdom reopened its Baghdad embassy last week, 25 years after it shuttered following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari called for calm on Saturday and said there shouldn’t be more demonstrations around Saudi diplomatic premises, according to IRNA. Protesters also removed the Saudi flag from its consulate in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city, local news agencies reported.

Saudi Arabia and Iran have long been rivals for power in the region and are already fighting what amounts to a proxy war in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has carried out airstrikes against Houthi rebels since last March. Iran supports the Houthis politically, but denies sending them weapons.

It has the “potential of inflaming further the sectarian tensions that already bring so much damage to the entire region, with dangerous consequences,” European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in a statement on Saturday. “The EU calls on the Saudi authorities to promote reconciliation between the different communities in the Kingdom, and all actors to show restraint and responsibility.”

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was “deeply dismayed” by the execution and reiterated his stance against the death penalty, according to a spokesman. He urged restraint in reactions among Saudi Arabia’s rivals and deplored Saturday’s violence at the embassy in Tehran.

The Saudi embassy in Baghdad got katyushaed by Harakat-al-Najuba the one of the Shia militias fighting in Syria. Trouble in Bahrain. Killing Nimr is insane, unless you are trying to screw over Defense Minister Mohammed.

The Saudi embassy in Baghdad got katyushaed by Harakat-al-Najuba the one of the Shia militias fighting in Syria. Trouble in Bahrain. Killing Nimr is insane, unless you are trying to screw over Defense Minister Mohammed.

It is an attempt by Saudi to try and broaden the conflict with Iran. To goad them into some reaction that they can then use to pressure the US or other Sunni states into escalation. Since the Sheikh was executed following the visit of the Sultan, it must have been part of the calculation. The pressure direct and indirect on Sunni states is extremely high to 'join the coalition' and contribute to the Yemen fight. Saudi could not GAS about Syria other than it is something to occupy Tehran.

Of the 3 East Asia countries, China has the most diverse supply of oil. In 2014, about 30% comes from Shia and Russia and about 33% from Sunni countries. Japan has only about 13% from Shia and Russia and about 76% from Sunni countries. South Korea has about 17% from Shia and Russia and about 71% from Sunni.

Why is the USA pie so roughly divided into regions, whereas the others name definite countries?

There wasn't one that was exactly like the other three for the US. The link below the US pie graph posted has some interesting things. There are others by going with google. This one says Jan 2014, one month may not be a long enough sample, but well I can put it up.

Main point is that US oil imports are far less than the 3 East Asia countires which is something to consider when thinking about the strategic interest of these countries. Another point is how China is not slanted to Sunni oil like Jpn, ROK, or the USA is.

Another important point from the link is that in 2013, the share of oil between US imports and US produced is 40% and 60% respectively. It really minimizes the impact of what happens in the ME. Naturally, Japan, RoK, and China don't have nearly as much domestic oil extraction.

Tensions sparked by cleric’s execution raise alarm about growing hostilities in regional battle for influence between two countries

By Asa Fitch in Dubai, Ahmed Al Omran in Riyadh and Karen Leigh in Beirut

Updated Jan. 3, 2016 7:48 p.m. ET

Saudi Arabia cut off diplomatic relations with Iran on Sunday, giving Iranian diplomats 48 hours to leave the country, as the kingdom’s execution of a dissident cleric inflamed sectarian tensions in a region already brimming with conflict.

Crowds of incensed Shiite Muslims demonstrated in cities from Tehran to Beirut, condemning the death of Nemer al-Nemer—a prominent Shiite cleric put to death in the mass execution of 47 prisoners on Saturday—and calling for the downfall of the Saudi government. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared that Saudi Arabia would face divine retribution for Mr. al-Nemer’s execution.

The unrest raised alarm in Western capitals about a new year of growing hostilities in the regional battle for influence between the Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Iran, the dominant Shiite power in the Middle East.

U.S. officials—who were pursuing high-level contacts with both countries Sunday in an effort to reduce the escalating tensions—said the State Department had been holding discussions for months with the Saudis about Washington’s concern over the planned executions and their potential to fuel sectarian strife.

“We have raised at every level of the State Department our concerns about judicial practices with Saudi officials, to include the (al-Nemer) case,” State Department spokesperson John Kirby said.

Saudi Arabia’s more aggressive approach toward Iran since King Salman came into power last year has been on display in its increased involvement in the Syrian civil war, where it is countering Iran-backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and in Yemen, where it is fighting Houthi rebels that receive Iran’s political support.

Mr. al-Nemer’s execution could have been planned in part to placate a large bloc of Saudis who favor anti-Shiite policies and sympathize with Sunni extremism, even if the Saudi leadership calculated his death would have a resounding political impact, said Toby Matthiesen, a senior research fellow at the Middle East Centre of St. Antony’s College at the University of Oxford in southern England.

“It is also supposed to show that Saudi does not tolerate any sign of dissent, whether violent, through demonstrations or through speeches and public appearances,” Mr. Matthiesen said.

Mr. al-Nemer, a Saudi national and leading voice behind Arab Spring-inspired Shiite protests that rocked the kingdom in 2011, was executed on Saturday alongside 46 mostly Sunni extremist convicts. Before the mass execution—the largest in Saudi Arabia in decades—Saudi authorities had been under pressure locally to execute al Qaeda militants involved in a violent insurgency between 2003 and 2006.

Almost 10 years after the government crushed that campaign, many figures sentenced to death remained in jail. That led some Saudi critics to suggest government leniency was helping foster a new generation of extremists to be recruited by Islamic State.

Mr. al-Nemer had been sentenced to death in October 2014 on charges of encouraging foreign meddling and disobedience toward Saudi Arabia’s rulers. Still, the decision to execute Mr. al-Nemer along with the Sunni militants surprised many—including, according to Mr. al-Nemer’s lawyer, the cleric’s family.

Saudi Arabia previously cut diplomatic ties with Iran in 1988 after protesters attacked the Saudi embassy, injuring a diplomat who later died of his wounds. Relations were restored in 1991, but they remained strained for years.

Relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia had already taken a step backward this past September after a stampede during the annual hajj pilgrimage in the holy Saudi city Mecca. Iran was sharply critical of Saudi Arabia’s handling of the incident, which Tehran said killed more than 450 Iranian citizens.

Concerns that the execution could become a catalyst for further strife triggered a flurry of diplomatic calls from Europe as well, as European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini spoke separately with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir. The French Foreign Ministry said it strongly condemned the executions and called for religious leaders to do everything possible to calm tensions in the region.

The execution “risks to be really explosive in the broader region” a senior Western diplomat said.

Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic relations with Iran on Sunday over the storming of the Saudi embassy in Tehran, in a deepening crisis between the regional adversaries following the kingdom's execution of a prominent Shi'ite Muslim cleric.

Here are some details on the ups and downs of relations over the last 20 years:

* 1987 - MECCA

-- Relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran were strained almost to breaking point in July 1987 when 402 pilgrims, 275 of whom were Iranian, died during clashes in the Muslim holy city of Mecca.

-- Protesters took to the streets of Tehran, occupied the Saudi embassy and set fire to Kuwait's embassy. A Saudi diplomat, Mousa'ad al-Ghamdi, died in Tehran of wounds sustained when he fell out of an embassy window and Riyadh accused Tehran of delaying his transfer to a hospital in Saudi Arabia.

-- Diplomatic relations were severed by Saudi Arabia's King Fahd in April 1988.

* 1999 - BETTER TIMES

-- King Fahd congratulated Iranian President Mohammad Khatami on his election victory in 2001, saying it was an endorsement of his reformist policy. Khatami, a Shi'ite Muslim cleric, worked for rapprochement with Saudi Arabia after winning his first landslide in 1997 and ending two decades of tense relations that followed Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

-- Khatami visited Saudi Arabia in 1999 on the first visit by an Iranian president since the revolution. The two countries sealed better relations with a security pact in April 2001.

* 2003 - REGIONAL RIVALRY

-- The invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in Iraq empowered the country's Shi'ite majority and resulted in a shift in its political alignment toward Iran.

-- Iran's nuclear energy program deepened Saudi fears that Tehran under Khatami's successor President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was bent on dominating the Gulf region and boosting its Shi'ite populations.

-- Saudi Arabia told an Iranian envoy in January 2007 that Iran was putting the Gulf in danger, in a reference to the Islamic Republic's conflict with the United States over Iraq and its nuclear program.

* 2011 - ARAB SPRING

-- Saudi Arabia sent troops to help Bahrain quash mass pro-democracy protests, fearing the mostly Shi'ite opposition would align with Iran. The two countries later accused Tehran of fomenting violence against Bahraini police.

-- U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks showed Saudi leaders, including King Abdullah, pushing Washington to take a tough stance against Iran over its nuclear program, including the possible use of military force.

-- Saudi Arabia accused some Shi'ites in its Eastern Province, including Nimr, of cooperating with a foreign state -- meaning Iran -- to sow dissension, after clashes between police and Shi'ites.

-- Washington said it had uncovered an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States. Riyadh said the evidence was overwhelming and Tehran would pay a price.

* 2012 - PROXY WARS

-- Saudi Arabia became the main supporter of rebels fighting to topple Iran's ally, President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. Riyadh accused Assad of "genocide" and Iran of being an "occupying power". Tehran accused Riyadh of backing "terrorism".

-- In March 2015, Saudi Arabia began a military campaign in Yemen to stop the Houthis, allied to Iran, from taking power. Riyadh accused Iran of using the militia to stage a coup d'etat. Tehran said Riyadh's air strikes targeted civilians.

Syrian insurgent group Jaysh al Islam on Monday welcomed Saudi Arabia's rupture of ties with Iran, saying Tehran's backing of Shi'ite militias was destabilizing the Middle East and stoking sectarian tensions in Syria.

Jaysh al-Islam is a Sunni Muslim group that is part of a new, Saudi-backed opposition body set up with the aim of bringing about peace talks between rebels and the Iranian-backed Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad.

The group, whose leader was killed in a Dec. 26 air strike, said Iran was "threatening the security of the region by exporting criminal militias that spread destruction and death and filled with sectarian vengeance".

The European Union's foreign policy chief warned Iran's foreign minister on Sunday that renewed tension between Shi'ite Iran and Saudi Arabia's Sunni monarchy could wreck efforts to find a political solution for the crisis in Syria.

Saudi Arabia condemned the killing of Jaysh al Islam's leader Zahran Allosuh in an aerial raid in his stronghold east of Damascus, saying his death did not serve the peace process in the war-torn country.

Iranian-backed militias and Lebanese Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah are fighting alongside the Syrian army against mainly Sunni insurgents backed by Saudi Arabia, other Gulf states and Turkey in a conflict that has cost over 250,000 lives.

China said on Monday it was concerned about the prospect of an intensification of conflict in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic relations with rival regional power Iran.

Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran on Sunday, responding to the storming of its embassy in Tehran in an escalating row over Riyadh's execution of a Shi'ite Muslim cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, an outspoken opponent of the ruling Al Saudi family.

Tension between revolutionary, mainly Shi'ite Iran and Saudi Arabia's conservative Sunni monarchy has run high for years as they backed opposing forces in conflicts across the Middle East.

"Like the international community, China is highly concerned about the developments and expresses concern that the relevant event may intensify conflict in the region," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular news briefing, referring to the escalation in tension.

The safety and dignity of diplomatic personnel should be guaranteed, Hua said.

"We hope the relevant parties can maintain calm and restraint, properly resolve their differences through dialogue and consultation and jointly safeguard regional peace and stability," she said.

One driving force of support for Islamic State militants fighting in Iraq and Syria has been a rise in sectarian anger, often inflamed by the proxy wars emerging from the political struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The United States, Saudi Arabia's biggest backer in the West, encouraged diplomatic engagement in the region and called for leaders to take "affirmative steps" to reduce tension.

The U.S. State Department also urged Saudi Arabia to respect and protect human rights and said Nimr's execution "risks exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced".

China relies on the Middle East for oil supplies, but tends to leave diplomacy there to other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- the United States, Britain, France and Russia.

Russia is ready to act as an intermediary to help settle the dispute between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Russian news agencies reported on Monday citing an anonymous Foreign Ministry source.

"As friends we would be ready to play, if it is demanded, an intermediary role in ... settling the existing contradictions and any new ones that arise between these two countries," RIA cited the source as saying.

Saudi Arabia used an attack on its embassy in Tehran as a pretext to fuel tensions, Iran's foreign ministry said on Monday after Riyadh severed diplomatic relations.

Iran was committed to protecting its foreign diplomatic missions, the ministry added.

Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in the early hours of Sunday after Saudi Arabia executed Shi'ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, prompting Riyadh to withdraw its diplomatic staff and order Iranian diplomats to leave the kingdom.

The protesters lit fires and smashed furniture in the embassy before being cleared out by the police, who made 40 arrests. No Saudi diplomats were in the embassy. Iranian officials condemned the attack as well as Nimr's execution.

"Iran has acted in accordance with its (diplomatic) obligations to control the broad wave of popular emotion that arose," foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said in televised remarks.

"Saudi Arabia benefits and thrives on prolonging tensions... (It) has used this incident as an excuse to fuel the tensions," he added.

Ansari said Iranian diplomats had not yet left Saudi Arabia. They were given 48 hours to leave late on Sunday night.

Am I the only one sorta enjoying seeing these two camps kill each other? I hope this means limiting terror activities inside that region alone, leaving the rest of the world alone.

Defninitely not the only one. They need a good 30 Years' War to reach some badly needed conclusions, and if it's only kept away form the oil facilities I'm fine with it.

Muslims have been killing mostly Muslims for the last fifteen years. Terror attacks in the west are more like spill over. Just look at the numbers of attacks and people killed. Attacks outside the arab world seem more like PR in comparison.

Am I the only one sorta enjoying seeing these two camps kill each other? I hope this means limiting terror activities inside that region alone, leaving the rest of the world alone.

Defninitely not the only one. They need a good 30 Years' War to reach some badly needed conclusions, and if it's only kept away form the oil facilities I'm fine with it.

Muslims have been killing mostly Muslims for the last fifteeny years. Terror attacks in the west are more like spill over. Just look at the numbers of attacks and people killed. Attacks outside the arab world seem more like PR in comparison.

So they reached the half way point already?

FIFY

Of course during the period you mentioned it was not a war/wars like the current one in Syria/Iraq/Yemen. Mostly detonating shit among civilians in a bazaar etc.

Muslims have been killing mostly Muslims for the last fifteenyeen hundred years. Terror attacks in the west are more like spill over. Just look at the numbers of attacks and people killed. Attacks outside the arab world seem more like PR in comparison.

So they reached the half way point already?

FIFY

Of course during the period you mentioned it was not a war/wars like the current one in Syria/Iraq/Yemen. Mostly detonating shit among civilians in a bazaar etc.

Am I the only one sorta enjoying seeing these two camps kill each other? I hope this means limiting terror activities inside that region alone, leaving the rest of the world alone.

I'd like to see some quality footage of 1970's US technology vs 2000's in the form of F-14s vs F-15SAs. Can technology mitigate Saudi general incompetence or will they be taken to the danger zone by Alicat drivers?

Am I the only one sorta enjoying seeing these two camps kill each other? I hope this means limiting terror activities inside that region alone, leaving the rest of the world alone.

I'd like to see some quality footage of 1970's US technology vs 2000's in the form of F-14s vs F-15SAs. Can technology mitigate Saudi general incompetence or will they be taken to the danger zone by Alicat drivers?

`If the shenanigans in The Yemen are anything to go by; I for one cannot see Western Mil Tech in the hands of Incompetent Saudi personnel do much other than provide targets for battle hardened al Quds (ex sp) brigades. Now, if the KSA was somehow able to persuade/force Pakistan to provide the cannon fodder, who knows.

Am I the only one sorta enjoying seeing these two camps kill each other? I hope this means limiting terror activities inside that region alone, leaving the rest of the world alone.

I'd like to see some quality footage of 1970's US technology vs 2000's in the form of F-14s vs F-15SAs. Can technology mitigate Saudi general incompetence or will they be taken to the danger zone by Alicat drivers?

`If the shenanigans in The Yemen are anything to go by; I for one cannot see Western Mil Tech in the hands of Incompetent Saudi personnel do much other than provide targets for battle hardened al Quds (ex sp) brigades. Now, if the KSA was somehow able to persuade/force Pakistan to provide the cannon fodder, who knows.

Charles

That last will not happen. For Pakistan to send enough force to matter it would have to significantly reduce its forces along its border with India. Now, that wouldn't mean war with India and in fact India would probably relocate forces away from the border to keep tensions down. But the fact that Pakistan moved troops without war breaking out would make plain to people in Pakistan how oversized and underused the nation's army is, and that would the threat said army's private empire, which the general's will not risk. Iran would also be able to make trouble in Pakistan, and Pakistan has domestic problems enough already.

IMO, there's no offer the Saudis could make to get Pakistan into a fight with Iran. The risks for the government of Pakistan would be too great.